Talk:Vision2Learn
Posted by Andrew Cooper - 26 Jul 2005 - 18:01 There are, we are told, over 600 Vision2Learn tutors. I think it would be good if we had a method of exchanging and sharing the knowledge we use to support our learners. This would have benefits for our learners and, of course, for us. One way of doing this would be to start a Vision2Learn ‘Wiki’. A Wiki isn’t a bulletin board system – it’s a way of working collaboratively to create content. There are hundreds of wikis on the web, but the best example is the Wikipedia, which is something of a web phenomenon. It’s an encyclopaedia which is being created by its users. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page The best way to understand what the wikipedia (and therefore a wiki) is, is to browse around the Wikipedia, find a subject that you’re interested in, set up a user name and add some content. There’s a page on distance learning which would benefit from being improved http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distance_learning , although it’s not a particularly good example of an article. (I’ve added Creating Careers to the list of links it includes). A better article is Wikipedia:Emotional intelligence and Wikipedia:7 July 2005 London bombings is just phenomenal - it was edited over 2800 times on July 7th alone. As you’ll see each page has an associated discussion page and a history page. The latter shows a history of edits and can be used to revert a page to a previous version which is particularly useful when a wiki is ‘vandalised’. (See Wikipedia:Dealing with vandalism including a helpful cartoon). There are also ‘edit pages’ which you can use to make edits. So, hopefully now you’ve got the idea. We could create in effect, an online resource book for all our courses which could include ideas, resources (notes on relevant books, links to internet sites), notes on problems and how we’ve resolved them, and so on. It would be quite easy to start this – there are hosting companies which offer wiki hosting quite cheaply and although it would take a while to reach a critical mass, I think a Vision2Learn wiki could provide an interesting and potentially valuable tool. Three final points. First, let me stress that I’m not proposing another discussion forum: there’s lots of much better software around if we wanted a decent forum (with, e.g. an ability to edit posts, add hyperlinks, pictures etc.) plus there's evidence to suggest that tutors aren't really interested in just discussing things. As I said, this would be more like an online resource and idea book. Secondly, can I suggest that we evaluate this idea after we’ve developed and explored it a bit more? It’s incredibly easy to think of reasons why this would never work. I can think of half a dozen without even working at it. However, as a rule it’s best to avoid premature evaluation as this is an excellent way of killing ideas right away. (An exception to this is if you think of a barrier or problem as well as a way of dealing with it.) Thirdly (following my previous attempt at posting on this subject) if anyone takes great offence to this idea, or to me, or generally wants to sound off about life the universe and everything please feel free to email me via sijambo@gmail.com and I’ll lend you a sympathetic ear. It’s best to do deal with this kind of thing in private, otherwise the thread will be deleted and I’ll have to repost this! Meanwhile, here are some other links you might like to look at to find out what’s involved and what’s possible. * Wikibooks * Wikibooks - how to start a Wiki * Wikitravel One final thought – if we developed a V2L Wiki we could, of course, open it up to learners as well… Posted by Ian Hulin - 27 Jul 2005 - 12:31 If it's not "just another discussion forum" then great. We could use it basically to capture things that aren't in the Help and Top Tips for learners, also to document some of the concepts which aren't spelt out in the current documentation (for tutors and learners). For instance we could actually document the fairly complicated relationship between the platform, learners' and tutor's local computer, local copies of documents and documents as held on the platform. This is why we have to spend a lot of time guiding/nurturing out new students when they first come on to a V2L course on how to send us assessments! Another good thing for this type of proposed information store is to capture what comprises the 'static' parts of the V2L platform (i.e. standard for all tutors at all colleges), and what bits are the configurable parts (i.e. V2L provides a template document of process, but individual colleges have to develop there own locally customized versions to get their provision of V2L course(s) up and running). One possible issue I can see with this, Andrew, is editorship. Would this wiki be a free-wheeling, freeware, Internet-type thing where all the competing changes eventually find an acceptable, stable, honest and decent level of factual content, or is there some degree of moderation, to save on initial time and energy? It could mean a lot of (probably unpaid) work for someone. Looking forward to what others have to contribute, Cheers, Ian Hulin (Newbury College) Posted by Andrew Cooper - 27 Jul 2005 - 13:29 Many thanks for those thoughts, Ian. I probably should have said 'it wouldn't be a discussion forum' rather than 'just another one. If we followed the wikipedia format and had a discussion page for each article there could be some discussion of the content of each page, and although that would be useful it's by no means essential. Looking at the wikipedia, the discussion pages are sometimes just as interesting as the articles: see this one for example - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Qaida I'd favour a freewheeling approach with no overall editor - seems to work brilliantly for wikipedia. If someone tried to post defamatory comments, or similar, they could just be barred from making changes. Some users would need to be given overall admin privileges in order for that to work. Getting people to contribute would be something of a challenge. One way of encouraging this would be for colleges to pay tutors for one hour a month of their time to contribute material (30 mins for those who are really cash strapped). That would give us 600 hours worth of contributions month straight away. Perhaps, as an added incentive, Creating Careers would provide a monthly cash prize for the best contribution? (Remember, we're not evaluating yet folks.) Posted by Andrew Cooper - 29 Jul 2005 - 20:45 Here are some examples of the kinds of material the V2L Wiki could include. Just for fun I’ve given them each a TLA*. (You can see how exciting Friday nights are here in Newbury.) FAQs – questions related to course material, assessments, the platform etc. etc. FGAs – frequently given answers FEPs – frequently encountered problems CSSs – commonly suggested solutions UWRs – useful web resources VITs – very interesting theories (of behaviour, for example, for the EIers) VUBs – very useful books RUIs – really useful improvements (to the platform, to course material, etc.) ANBs – absolute no brainers (things that really should be changed – like instructions in assessments to send them in using Vmail: thanks changing this in PB@W, incidentally) NTHs – nice to haves CSIs – currently scheduled improvements LPWs – little pearls of wisdom BPWs – big pearls of wisdom UWAs – useful work-arounds (e.g. ways of sending zipped files via vmail) INIs – interesting new ideas (like starting a V2L wiki, to take an obvious example) UCC – useful and constructive comments on the INIs VGAs – very good assessments (extracts from, probably anonymous) SPPs – short pen pictures (of tutors, so we can get to know each other) GIS – generally interesting stuff OK, I cheated a little bit with some of these. Others anyone? BFN Andrew Newbury College * you don’t need to ask, do you? Posted by Andrew Cooper - 30 Jul 2005 - 6:41 Here are some Q&As related to the idea. Are you serious about this? Absolutely. I don’t just think it’s a good idea: I would really benefit from having a comprehensive Tutor Handbook/subject reference for V2L. Wouldn’t you? What better way to produce one than involving 600 tutors in doing the work. This would be more than a tutor handbook, wouldn’t it? Well spotted. It would provide a reference source for all the V2L subjects, built up from the knowledge and experience of the hundreds of us dotted around the country. When I interact with my learners I try to drop a few LPWs (see above) into my feedback whenever I can. I want to know everyone elses’s LPWs so that I can drop them in as well. It would be nice to know a few BPWs as well, obviously. Don’t you think that there are some disaffected people who would simply use the thing to sound-off about V2L, their own College and life the universe and everything? There are, of course, people who would like to sound-off about these things but an online continuously updated reference source/tutor handbook wouldn’t be the place to do it. How would you stop them? Two ways. First, anyone would be able to edit the web pages so any inappropriate comments could be deleted. Secondly, only V2L tutors would be able to change the wiki so if anyone decided to use the thing persistently for GMGs (general moans and groans) they could be barred from access. The place for GMGs is, I guess, this ‘café’. How would you limit access? By using an existing identifier – such as the email address they already have registered with V2L as their user name. Those who decided to, say, post a list of their favourite porn sites they could be barred from accessing it. Other people – such as learners – could have read access only. (Note - it may not be possible to limit access in this way, but there are a number of measures which could be taken to limit and control vandalism.) ''Do you honestly think that people would give their time, unpaid, to contributing to this? '' Only if it was useful to them and saved them time in the long run. The difficult part would be reaching a critical mass –the point where it was useful to anyone. I’d guess that only a small group of the usual suspects would contribute at first (say 10% of V2L tutors) but if 60 people each contributed one LPW, FAQ and FSS in the firs week we’d have a starting point for building that critical mass. I also know many people who contribute to some very good bulletin boards and blogs which I use (they aren’t V2L related) and they do so simply out of interest and because they get something personally out of doing so. They certainly don’t get paid. Category:Vision2Learn